Two days of leaks have revealed that the secretive National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting data on not only every phone call made in the United States, but is surveilling a large portion of the Internet at all times, culling information on virtually everything from email to video watching preferences to Skype conversations.
What followed was a series of overt lies, vague denies, and finally simple anger. Google, one of the companies implicated in the Powerpoint presentation, claimed the whole thing was untrue and that Google had never given the NSA the backdoor that the presentation confirms is very real.
President Obama shrugged off the program, insisting that spying on pretty much everyone at all times “protects your civil liberties” and that the program wasn’t really “secret,” even though it was kept a secret for several years and is stamped “Top Secret” right at the top.
The most telling statements came from James Clapper, however, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Clapper confirmed the presentation’s authenticity, condemning the leak as “reprehensible,” and then insisting the program was important to “protect our nation.”
Clapper followed up a de facto admission of the authenticity of the Powerpoint document with lies of his own that totally contradict the presentation itself, insisting that the PRISM scheme is “subject to oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,” when the NSA file made it clear the whole point of PRISM was to allow broad surveillance of everybody without FISA getting in the way.
This is how the whole thing had to end. Americans were basically content with their government's killings, maimings, and plunderings in foreign lands. After all, the browns had been asking for it. Their sense of exceptionalism, moreover, shot skywards in the knowledge that their government had been creating a reality of their own. The feeling of boundless power this gave them was so ecstatic anyway. And who cared if these people also had to be spied on? They, being non Americans, had no rights. However, the wheel has been turning slowly, and it hasn't stopped yet. As Reagan said, "You ain't seen nothing yet". But I doubt that America's best days lie ahead.
Janis Joplin "Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose. Yeah makes me feel so fucking much more free and safe(?) to know that some government lackey or contractor knows what all sites I go to on the internet, listens to me discuss my sex life with my WIFE. Hello you HOLLOW men how about reversing the movement of wealth from the poor to the top 1/10 of the top 1%, Oh so sorry to have said that, I mean the transfer of piddling amount of money from the poor to the .001% where all them (Richard Pryor movie) billions of pennies are wealth. I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO fucking happy to have spent a useless year as a combat vet in 'Nam. VA found out about PTSD in 1970 took them 10 years to admit Vets had a problem. I'm on appeal to get to 70% and unemployiblity which is the same as 100%. See in VA math each 10% is about $200 a month except 90 to 100 adds $1000…VA will like put you down as 10% disabled and you appeal that and 2 years later they say oh uh we made mistake, you should have been 50%, and you appeal that and 2 or 3 years later they say oh gee you be right 100% instead of 10% would have been right. Worked jets 20 years, and VA hearing test says I hear okay. Driving along my niece says your left turn blinker is on. I look down and yep she be right the left turn blinker is blinking, but how could she see that. Well she HEARD it. I never knew the turn signals on that vehicle MADE a sound, but my VA hearing bullshit test says I hear okay. Anyway with out a warrant for cause, stay OUT of my piss, spit, and communications. I voted for Obama. People here in Florida say doesn't it bother you to have a black in the White House? Absolutely not, but it sure as hell bothers me to have the most clueless 'constitutional" dimwit ever in the White House. GOP wont let him close Gitmo? As CIC freaking Order an admiral to move the detainees to ships, sail the ships to Boston harbor.
Lies within lies. Why should anyone believe anything this countries lying mouthpieces ever say? This has crossed decades, generations even, of deceit and so isn't just one administration but the very entity itself is a threat to all of us.
Google didn't give the NSA the back door at all, it gave them the front door with the key so they could access Google anytime they wanted!
as for Fisa, how many warrants have they disallowed since inception, is it NONE or Just one!!
Awww, how dare someone ruin their party? First of all, thanks to all those folks who are releasing this info.
Now if all they're collecting is "meta data" what's the big deal? Why can't American's know? If it's only "meta data" how is collecting all that keeping us safe? It's supposedly doesn't involve only foreigners and not Americans, but how the hell would the government know, it treats everyone as an American. Unlike most other countries that make a meaningful distinction between citizens, and the rest, the US government doesn't even ask or is interested where all these people are from, how they got here, and what they're doing here. But we're supposed to believe that from "meta data" they can tell Americans from foreigners? Lies and more lies.
The whole thing is a monster that patriotism, true to its calling as the last refuge of scoundrels, has unleashed on the American people. We're so proud of our global empire, with its trillion-dollar annual budget and our brave fighting heroes 150 feet below the Nevada desert taking on wedding parties around the world. We probably deserve worse than what we're getting.
you americans finally had enough of a militarized police state?
The militarized police state as you call it is like a drug. A radical treatment is necessary like cutting a limb or so.
the problem is that snowdens leak of NSA spying on usa citizens was probably deliberate attempt of the government to actually hide the true criminal acts that are going on. http://WWW.surveillanceissues.com
i came to the revelation of this technology by the stupidity of the agents using it on me.